•D2090. Blue and White Fan-Shaped Flower Vase

Delft, circa 1690

Marked AK in blue for Adrianus Kocx, the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1686 to 1701

Dimensions
Height: 20.5 cm. (8.1 in.)

Note
Delft factories produced flower holders with fanning rows of spouts from the 1680s right through to about 1740. This vase, a so-called quintel vase topped by a single row of five spouts arranged in a fan, was the earliest model of fan-shaped vases. It is however a rare model, since only one other flower holder of this model and marked for Adrianus Kocx is known in the collection of Uppark, South Harting, West Sussex. Two other similarly modeled flower holders, marked for Samuel van Eenhoorn, the owner ofter the factory prior to Adrianus Kocx, are in the collection of the Mnichovo Hradiste castle in the Czech Republic, and, although incomplete and made up of shards, in het Palace Het Loo. Flower vases like these were used for a variety of cut-flowers, and not just tulips as is often the misunderstanding. Although flower vases are rarely depicted in contemporary images, an early eighteenth-century chair in Croft Castle in Herefordshire shows the image of a quintel vase in its needlework.